CALVINISM'S FIRST BATTLEGROUND STUDIES IN EARLY MODERN RELIGIOUS REFORMS

VOLUME 4

Editor Irena Backus, University of

Board of Consulting Editors Michael J.B. Allen, University of California, Los Angeles Guy Bedouelle, Université de Emidio Campi, University of Bernard Cottret, Université de -Versailles Denis Crouzet, Université de Paris IV-Sorbonne Luc Deitz, Bibliothèque nationale de Luxembourg Paul Grendler (Emeritus), University of Toronto Ralph Keen, University of Iowa Heiko Oberman, University of , Tucson Maria-Cristina Pitassi, University of Geneva Herman Selderhuis, Theological University Apeldoorn David Steinmetz, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina Christoph Strohm, Ruhr-Universität Bochum Mark Vessey, University of British Columbia Lee Palmer Wandel, University of Wisconsin-Madison David Wright, University of Edinburgh 'S FIRST BATTLEGROUND Conflict and Reform in the Pays de , 1528-1559

by MICHAEL W . BRUENING Concordia University, Irvine, CA, U.S.A. A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN-10 1-4020-4193-4 (HB) ISBN-13 978-1-4020-4193-8 (HB) ISBN-10 1-4020-4194-2 (e-book) ISBN-13 978-1-4020-4194-5 (e-book)

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Printed and bound in the Netherlands. Dedication

This book is dedicated to Jeanine Contents

Abbreviations ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction 1

Politics and Diplomacy in Vaud 17

Zwinglianism and Lutheranism in 61

The Clash of the Old and New Faiths 93

From Sacramentarians to Calvinists 133

From Political Calvinism to the of the Refugees 167

From the Pays de Vaud to France 211

Conclusion 257

Appendix: Timeline of Major Events 265 viii Contents

References 267 Index 279 Abbreviations

ACV Archives cantonales vaudoises AVL Archives de la ville de BDS Bucer, Martin. Bucers deutsche Schriften BHV Bibliothèque historique vaudoise BNF Bibliothèque nationale de France Calvin-Studienausgabe Calvin, John. Calvin-Studienausgabe Chroniqueur Vulliemin, Louis. Le Chroniqueur CO Calvin, John. Ioannis Calvini Opera quae supersunt omnia Correspondance de Bèze Bèze, Théodore de. Correspondance de Théodore de Bèze EA Segesser, Anton. Die Eidgenössischen Abschiede Guillaume Farel Comité Farel, Guillaume Farel 1489-1565 HBBW Bullinger, Heinrich. Briefwechsel Herminjard Herminjard, A.-L. Correspondance des Réformateurs HS Helvetia Sacra MDR Mémoires et documents publiés par la société d’histoire de la Suisse romande MHR Musée historique de la Réformation OS Calvin, John. Ioannis Calvini Opera Selecta PL Migne, J.-P. Patrologia Latina Pierrefleur Pierrefleur, [Guillaume de]. Mémoires de Pierrefleur RCP Registres de la compagnie des pasteurs de Genève RHV Revue historique vaudoise Ruchat Ruchat, Abraham. Histoire de la Réformation de la Suisse. 1728 edition STAB Staatsarchive des Kantons Bern THR Travaux d’Humanisme et Renaissance Vuilleumier Vuilleumier, Henri. Histoire de l’Eglise Réformée du Pays de Vaud sous le régime Bernois, vol. 1: L’Age de la Réforme WA Br Luther, Martin. D. Martin Luthers Werke: Briefwechsel Z Zwingli, Ulrich. Huldreich Zwinglis sämtliche Werke ZSKG Zeitschrift für schweizerische Kirchengeschichte Preface

Before his untimely death in April 2001, my Doktorvater Heiko A. Oberman was a strong advocate for an approach to history that he labelled “the social history of ideas.” It is a method that seeks to explain the dynamic interaction between society and ideas, for the fundamental principle behind it is that intellectual currents both affect and are affected by social trends, institutions, and identities. The social history of ideas seeks to steer between the socio-economic determinism of Marxist scholarship and the elitism of traditional intellectual history that charted the course of ideas from the mind of one “great man” to the next.1 I now realize the significant impact that Oberman’s training has had on my own work. I am indeed exploring the social history of an intellectual system, Calvinism, by analyzing how the political and social history of the Reformation in the Pays de Vaud affected Calvinist doctrine, particularly teachings on ecclesiastical discipline. It is an effort to ground Calvinism more firmly in its historical context; indeed, my fundamental premise is that one cannot fully understand early Calvinism apart from its specific historical context as it developed in Geneva and neighboring Vaud. Early in my graduate studies, Oberman asked me to help him edit one of his influential articles: “Calvin and Farel, the Dynamics of Legitimation.”2 In a way, I have been in dialogue with that article ever since. Many of the major themes in this book are the same as those in Oberman’s article: the

1 See, e.g., Heiko A. Oberman, The Impact of the Reformation (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1994), viii-xi. 2 Heiko A. Oberman, “Calvin and Farel, The Dynamics of Legitimation,” Journal of Early Modern History 2 (1998): 32-60 xii Preface triumvirate of Calvin, Farel, and Viret, the legitimation of the Reformed movement, and the transformation of Calvin from a city reformer to an international figure. Tragically, Oberman died before I developed my own ideas on these subjects and could discuss them with him. Although I criticize a number of his positions in this book, I am fully cognizant of the fact that he helped prepare me to do so. Oberman always saw his role of Doktorvater (never just “advisor”) as one in which he would provide his students with the training that would allow them to find their own voice in the world of scholarship. I can think of no better way to honor his memory than by what I have tried to do in this book: to develop further his important insights and to critique his views where I believe he was mistaken. Before beginning, some notes on terms and usage are in order. Most of this book will focus on the French-speaking lands conquered by Bern in 1536, which today comprise parts of Canton Vaud in and the French départements of Haute-Savoie and Ain in France. In order to avoid anachronistic terminology, I will use primarily the contemporary sixteenth- century terms for these areas, referring specifically to the Pays de Vaud or simply Vaud, the Pays de Gex, and the Chablais. When referring to Bern’s French-speaking lands in general, I again use the contemporary phrases, pays romands, welsche Länder, or the English equivalent, Bern’s French- speaking lands. I make one exception to the rule on anachronism to avoid needless wordiness; when referring to all the areas which today comprise French-speaking Switzerland,including Vaud, as well as Geneva, Neuchâtel, and their environs, I use either French-speaking Switzerland or the Suisse romande. The reader should be aware that neither Geneva nor Neuchâtel were part of the Swiss Confederation at the time, but these areas were tied closely together through language, religion, and alliances with Bern. With regard to city names, I use standard English equivalents when they exist (e.g., Geneva rather than Genève or Genf). For other Swiss cities, I use the spelling of the city’s dominant language: hence, Fribourg rather than Freiburg, Bern instead of Berne, rather than Bâle or Basle, etc. I follow basically the same rules for personal names: e.g., John instead of Jean Calvin, but Pierre rather than Peter Viret, Guillaume not , Nägeli rather than Naegueli, etc. One exception is that my use of the French Henri, rather than Henry when referring to the king, is intended to eliminate any confusion with the many other European monarchs of the same name. When in doubt about a name, I have used the spelling in the online Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse.3 Note that the permeability of

3 “Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse/Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz/Dizionario Storico della Svizzera,” online at http://www.lexhist.ch/. Preface xiii the linguistic border in the Swiss Confederation often created mixed French-German family names; “de Diesbach,” for example, is correct. Finally, some preliminary explanation is necessary for more conceptual terminology. I use both the adjective and noun Protestant in the broadest possible sense to refer to people, regions, and churches that officially severed ties to Rome and abolished the Catholic Mass in the sixteenth century. I try to avoid using the vague phrase Protestant , preferring to specify theological systems through reference to their founders. The term Lutheran can be tricky; first, it should be remembered that Catholics referred to all “heretics” as Lutherans. Second, Lutheranism itself was not yet firmly defined during most of the time period under consideration; hence, although Bucer and the Lutherans in Bern may not have fit more precise later definitions, they fell into the Lutheran camp at the time. Finally, by ecclesiastical discipline I mean the attempt to enforce doctrinal conformity and moral behavior by an ecclesiastical body, usually the consistory.

Michael W. Bruening

Irvine, 21 April 2005 Acknowledgments

I owe a debt of gratitude to the many people who have had a hand in making this book possible. First, I want to thank the people at Springer for the opportunity to publish my work. Irena Backus kindly encouraged me at a number of points during the course of my graduate work, and I am grateful for the chance to publish in her series, “Studies in Early Modern Religious Reforms.” Also, my thanks to the editors and staff at Springer, particularly Floor Oosting and Ingrid van Laarhoven, who have been most helpful at all stages in preparing the book manuscript. Thanks also to Springer’s anonymous referee who made many helpful corrections and suggestions. I would like to thank the staff members of the libraries and archives I used during the course of my research for their assistance, particularly at the libraries of Concordia University Irvine, UC-Irvine, UCLA, the , Calvin College, Princeton University, and Princeton Theological Seminary; also, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Bibliothèque du Protestantisme français in Paris, the Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire de Lausanne, the Archives de la ville de Lausanne, the Archives cantonales vaudoises, and the Staatsarchiv des Kantons Bern. Also thanks to the anonymous donor of the Gehrke Reformation Collection of Luther’s works and the Corpus Reformatorum at Concordia University. I am very grateful to those who have provided financial support to assist my writing and research. The Institut d’Histoire de la Réformation in Geneva and the Meeter Center for Calvin Studies at Calvin College in Grand Rapids both provided research grants to work at their institutions. Dr. Morris Martin and Mrs. Ora DeConcini-Martin provided a very generous grant to pursue invaluable library and archival research in Europe. The History Department and the Division for Late Medieval and Reformation Studies at xvi Acknowledgments the University of Arizona provided financial assistance throughout my years in graduate school. Concordia University Irvine provided a teaching load reduction that helped to free up time to complete writing the book. I would like to thank all of the many people who have offered lively academic conversation and advice, especially my colleagues from the Division for Late Medieval and Reformation Studies. A few other individuals merit specific mention and thanks. Carlos Eire first inspired me, while an undergraduate at the University of Virgina, to study Reformation history and was the first to suggest studying Pierre Viret, which led directly to my studies of the Pays de Vaud. My graduate advisor at Virginia, H. C. Erik Midelfort, offered invaluable encouragement and support during my first years of graduate studies. And Bernard Roussel warmly welcomed me to Paris and introduced me to the libraries there. Many thanks to those who read my dissertation and made many valuable suggestions for changes in the book, especially Susan Karant-Nunn, who graciously took over the direction of my dissertation upon the death of Heiko Oberman, and the other members of my dissertation committee, Alan Bernstein, and Helen Nader. Thomas A. Brady, Jr. also read part of the dissertation and offered valuable critiques. I especially want to thank those who have helped with the preparation of the book manuscript. Kerri Thomsen, my colleague in the English department at Concordia University, very generously read and copy edited most of the manuscript. Jonathan Reid, a fellow graduate of the Division for Late Medieval and Reformation Studes, offered many excellent suggestions and a critical eye in reading both parts of the dissertation and the entire book manuscript. Any errors that remain are my own. Sadly, one of the people I most need to thank is no longer with us. Heiko Oberman, died shortly after I had started writing the dissertation. I can only hope that the outstanding training and guidance he provided comes through in this work and that it would have pleased him. I want to thank my parents and brother for their constant love and support over the years. Finally, my most heartfelt thanks go to my beloved wife, Jeanine, who has provided both constant encouragement and material support. She is my life partner and my first editor; she has offered much helpful advice and has read and corrected the entire manuscript several times. I dedicate this book to her. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

Calvinism is much misunderstood. The confusion stems primarily from the tendancy, as Richard Muller has described it, to accommodate Calvin to current concerns and theological debates.1 The accommodated Calvin is protean, shifting shape to fit widely varying perspectives. Those outside the Reformed tradition often mischaracterize his theology as a foil to their own or present him as the avatar of repressive moralism, while those who consider themselves the heirs of that tradition tend to impose their own theological views on him. The result has been a Calvinism that can be cited in support of theocracy or democracy, of a symbolic view of the Eucharist or the real presence, of revolution or strict political obedience. The single most important factor behind this confused, multi-form Calvinism has been the neglect of the enormous continuing influence of Ulrich Zwingli and his successor in Zurich, Heinrich Bullinger, on the formation of the Reformed tradition. Instead, Zwingli and Calvin are too often conflated, viewed together as initiator and heir respectively of a unified Reformed tradition. Especially in the English-speaking world, where the specifically Calvinist form of has dominated historically, Reformed Christianity is frequently almost equated with Calvinism, as seen, for example, in John T. McNeill’s The History and Character of Calvinism,2 which served for decades as the dominant survey of the Reformed tradition. From this Calvino-centric perspective, Zwingli is understood to have been replaced by Calvin, and Bullinger is portrayed, in a sense, as Calvin’s

1 Richard A. Muller, The Unaccommodated Calvin: Studies in the Foundation of a Theological Tradition, Oxford Studies in Historical Theology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). 2 John T. McNeill, The History and Character of Calvinism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954). 2 Chapter 1 lackey. McNeill’s work has recently been superseded by Philip Benedict’s Christ’s Churches Purely Reformed,3 whose subtitle, A Social History of Calvinism, seems to indicate little change, but Benedict, in fact, more clearly recognizes differences among the various Reformed traditions. Recent scholarship among Swiss historians has shown just how independent Bullinger was, and the picture that is starting to emerge reveals Calvin as the junior partner in their relationship. This portrayal has received an important boost in the English-speaking world from Bruce Gordon’s work, particularly his recent The Swiss Reformation.4 Taken together, Gordon’s and Benedict’s surveys make it clear that the terms Calvinist and Reformed are by no means interchangeable. Nowhere do we see this more clearly than in the conflicts between the followers of Calvin and those of Zwingli in the Swiss Confederation, particularly in the French-speaking region of the Pays de Vaud. Indeed, I will argue that Calvinism emerged as a theological system and cultural identity distinct from the Swiss Reformed Church, principally through a series of conflicts in the Pays de Vaud between the French-speaking ministers who followed Calvin and the German-speaking Zwinglian ministers and magistrates of Bern over the issues of predestination, the Eucharist, and ecclesiastical discipline. Although these three issues can by no means be said to constitute the whole substance of Calvin’s theology, the conflicts that arose over them nevertheless shaped a unique Calvinist identity during the Reformation. The Calvinists insisted on the right to preach about predestination when the Bernese ordered silence on the issue. They believed that Christ’s true body and blood are exhibited in the Eucharist whereas the Bernese favored a more symbolic understanding of the sacrament. And, most

3 Philip Benedict, Christ’s Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002) 4 Bruce Gordon, The Swiss Reformation (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002). As the anniversary of Bullinger’s 500th birthday, 2004 was a particularly important year for Bullinger studies. See, e.g., the new biography by Fritz Büsser, Heinrich Bullinger: Leben, Werk, und Wirkung, 2 vols. (Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 2004, 2005); Emidio Campi, ed., Heinrich Bullinger und seine Zeit, Zwingliana 31 (Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 2004); Bruce Gordon and Emidio Campi, eds., Architect of Reformation: An Introduction to Heinrich Bullinger, 1504-1575, Texts and Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic Press, 2004). On Calvin’s relationship with both Bullinger and the Swiss Reformation in general, see Peter Opitz, ed., Calvin im Kontext der Schweizer Reformation (Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 2002). The continuing publication of Bullinger’s opera omnia, particularly his correspondence (HBBW) will no doubt shed much light on Calvin’s status vis à vis Bullinger and the Swiss. 1. Introduction 3 importantly, they demanded the right of excommunication and the emancipation of the consistories from the control of secular government. The genesis and development of these conflicts can be understood only within the broader context of political struggle in the Pays de Vaud. Three distinct forces competed for control of this region in the sixteenth century. First, the powerful Swiss city-state of Bern conquered the region and imposed Protestantism on it in 1536. The Bernese brought with them Zwinglian theology and a centralizing political philosophy that sought to subsume all aspects of society, including religion, under the control of the Bern city council. Second, the Catholic duke of Savoy, whom the Bernese had defeated, lingered constantly on the horizon, threatening to take back the region from Bern and reinstitute obedience to Rome. Catholicism was deeply ingrained among the people of Vaud, and the possibility of returning to Savoyard rule encouraged them in their resistance to the new government and religion. Third, French-speaking ministers started to descend on the region in the early 1530s, most of them fleeing persecution in France. They increased Bernese influence on the Francophone region before the 1536 conquest and helped to fill the numerous vacancies in the parishes of Vaud afterwards, but many of them preferred to look for leadership to their fellow Frenchman , who had arrived in Geneva in 1536, rather than to the German-speaking Bernese. Calvinism developed among the Francophone ministers in response to the other two forces. Since the people of Vaud had been compelled by decree to adopt Protestantism, the ministers were engaged in a constant campaign to encourage genuine conversion, or at the very least abandonment of traditional Catholic practices. In this they were fully allied with Bern, which also wanted its subjects to put away “papist superstition.” They disagreed, however, over the means to do so. The Bernese believed in long-term reform brought about by legislation and the indoctrination of the next generation through catechetical instruction. For the Calvinists, this was not good enough; in their view of the Eucharist, people still attached to Catholicism could not take the sacrament worthily but instead polluted the very body of Christ. Pollution of the body of Christ was not something to overlook for an entire generation, and the pressing need to deal with it immediately led directly to the initial development of the Calvinist understanding of ecclesiastical discipline as well as to the repeated efforts by Pierre Viret and his fellow ministers in Vaud to convince the Bernese to establish it in practice. Consideration of the social and political forces operating in the Pays de Vaud is crucial to a full understanding of the development of Calvin’s theology and of Calvinism more broadly, yet no study has fully explored this regional perspective. Many fine scholars have deepened our understanding 4 Chapter 1 of Calvin as a theologian,5 as a local reformer in Geneva,6 and as an international leader.7 In addition, a few Swiss scholars have looked at Calvin in relation to the Protestant cantons.8 The significance of the relationship between Calvin and the Pays de Vaud, however, has never been sufficiently recognized. Calvin was deeply concerned about events in Vaud, as his extensive correspondence with Pierre Viret in Lausanne indicates. By looking at Calvin in the context of Vaud and the Swiss Confederation, we can see him grow from a local city pastor into a regional religious leader and eventually into a figure of staggering international importance. We can also discern an otherwise unnoticeable yet vitally important shift in Calvin’s reform strategy from seeking to establish a political Reformation in the Swiss Confederation to leading a European-wide “Reformation of the Refugees.” The regional focus on the Pays de Vaud explains why this is not a book about Calvin alone. Although he certainly is a central figure, my topic is not principally Calvin but Calvinism. Calvinism must be understood not simply as one man’s theological system but as a cultural identity, and the first group of Calvinists formed among the French-speaking ministers in Vaud.9 The Reformation in the Pays de Vaud has been reasonably well documented, but the scholarship has not been updated for well over half a century. The standard survey remains Henri Vuilleumier’s magisterial four-volume Histoire de l’Église Réformée du Pays de Vaud sous le régime Bernois from 1927.10 That work, along with many others produced in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, is typical of local studies done by Vaudois

5 The most important recent study is Muller, The Unaccommodated Calvin. 6 E.g., William G. Naphy, Calvin and the Consolidation of the Genevan Reformation (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994). 7 E.g., Menna Prestwich, ed., International Calvinism, 1541-1715 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985). Heiko A. Oberman also fit into this camp; he was particularly proud of his phrase, “The reformer of Geneva returned [after his exile in Strasbourg] to become the reformer out of Geneva.” Oberman, “Calvin and Farel,”, 43 (Oberman’s emphasis). 8 See e.g., Opitz, Calvin im Kontext der Schweizer Reformation; Kurt Guggisberg, “Calvin und Bern,” in Festgabe Leonhard von Muralt: zum siebzigsten Geburtstag 17. Mai 1970 überreicht von Freunden und Schülern, ed. Martin Haas and René Hauswirth, 266-85 (Zurich: Verlag Berichthaus, 1970). 9 By my use of the term identity, I do not mean to suggest that they called themselves “Calvinists.” The ministers saw themselves as preaching “Reformed Christianity,” not Calvinism. Nevertheless, although they would claim that their views were based on scripture alone and not on Calvin, they uniformly agreed that Calvin was the best contemporary interpreter of the Word of God. 10 Henri Vuilleumier, Histoire de l’Église Réformée du Pays de Vaud sous le régime bernois, 4 vols. (Lausanne: Éditions la Concorde, 1927-1933). 1. Introduction 5 historians and theologians.11 Much of their work was excellent scholarship, but the authors appear to have had a Vaudois audience chiefly in mind and did not generally examine the implications of their research for the broader history of the Reformation. Moreover, Vaudois scholars appear to have lost interest in the Reformation in recent years. For example, the principal historical journal for the region, the Revue Historique Vaudoise, is full of articles on the Reformation in the volumes before World War II; the number started to decline at mid-century to the point today where one is fortunate to find in the journal an article on the Reformation once every ten years.12 As a result, Vaud itself has fallen almost completely off the radar of international Reformation scholars. In studies of Calvinism today, France receives the most attention. Led by the pioneering work of Robert Kingdon on the missionaries sent into France from Geneva,13 historians have tended to focus on Calvin’s influence on France, especially through the impact of the vernacular religious book, a field exemplified by the work of Francis Higman14 and Jean-François

11 See, e.g., Jean Barnaud, Pierre Viret: Sa vie et son oeuvre (1511-1571) (Saint-Amans: G. Carayol, 1911); Charles Gilliard, La conquête du Pays de Vaud par les Bernois, Histoire Helvétique (Lausanne: L’Aire, 1985 [Lausanne: La Concorde, 1935]); idem, Pages d’histoire vaudoise, ed. Louis Junod, BHV 22 (Lausanne: Imprimerie centrale, 1959); Louis Vulliemin, Le Chroniqueur: Recueil historique et journal de l’Helvétie romande, renfermant le récit de la Réformation de ce pays et celui de sa réunion à la Suisse dans les années 1535 et 1536 (Lausanne: Marc Ducloux, 1836). All who work on the Reformation in Vaud owe an enormous debt to the eighteenth-century Vaudois pastor/historian Abraham Ruchat for his Histoire de la Réformation de la Suisse, où l’on voit tout ce qui s’est passé de plus remarquable, depuis l’an 1516. jusqu’en l’an 1556., dans les églises des XIII. cantons, et des états confederez, qui composent avec eux le corps helvetique, 6 vols. (Geneva: Marc-Michel Bousquet & Co., 1728). One nineteenth-century scholar who did, in fact, look at Vaud within the broader context of the Swiss Reformation and who dealt with many of the same issues I will be looking at in this book was Karl Bernard Hundeshagen, Die Conflikte des Zwinglianismus, des Luthertums und des Calvinismus in der Bernischen 1532-1558 (Bern: C. A. Jenni, 1842). 12 There has, however, been a recent revival in studies on Pierre Viret, Calvin’s close associate and leader of the Calvinist ministers of Vaud. Most significantly, the Association Pierre Viret has recently begun publishing Viret’s Oeuvres complètes, which will be the first time most of his treatises have been published since the sixteenth century. Pierre Viret, Oeuvres complètes, ed. A.-L. Hofer (Lausanne: L’Age d’homme, 2004- ). 13 Robert M. Kingdon, Geneva and the Coming of the Wars of Religion in France, 1555- 1563, THR 22 (Geneva: Droz, 1956). 14Francis M. Higman, Lire et découvrir: La circulation des idées au temps de la Réforme, THR 326 (Geneva: Droz, 1998); idem, Piety and the People: Religious Printing in French, 1511-1551, St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History (Brookfield, VT: Scholar Press, 1996); idem, La Diffusion de la Réforme en France: 1520-1565, 6 Chapter 1

Gilmont,15 and resulting in the ambitious “French Vernacular Book Project” currently being undertaken by Andrew Pettegree and his team at the University of St. Andrews.16 Several historians have also conducted detailed local studies that have greatly enhanced our understanding of Reformed communities in France.17 Particularly in the context of such scholarship, the absence of recent work on the Pays de Vaud encourages either of two erroneous impressions: First, Calvin’s influence appears to have leaped hundreds of kilometers from Geneva to French cities such as Paris, La Rochelle, and Montaubon, but not into the neighboring French-speaking region of Vaud. Or second, if considered at all, Vaud is seen as a vast, relatively unimportant suburb of Geneva. This absence of recent scholarship is all the more regrettable because, as I will argue, the course of the Reformation in Vaud affected Calvinism’s growth in France. Not only were the unique aspects of Calvinism developed in response to conflicts in Vaud, but the attention Calvin and the Genevans paid to France also increased as their influence in Vaud decreased after 1550. As it became clear that the Bernese would not turn Calvinist and establish “true, godly discipline” in Vaud but instead had grown to hate Calvin and his influence over their French pastors, the Calvinists turned their sights westward to France. Of course, Calvin always had a deep, abiding interest in the religious situation in his homeland, but what has gone largely unnoticed is that he initially sought to improve matters through official diplomatic channels and alliances. Only later, after Marguerite de Navarre’s French evangelical network collapsed and neither the nor the renewal of the Swiss-French alliance gained unanimous support in

Publications de la Faculté de théologie de l’Université de Genève 17 (Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1992). 15Jean-François Gilmont, Jean Calvin et le livre imprimé, Etudes de philologie et d’histoire (Cahiers d’Humanisme et Renaissance) (Geneva: Droz, 1997); idem and Rudolphe Peter, Bibliotheca Calviniana: Les oeuvres de Jean Calvin publiées au XVIe siècle, 3 vols., THR 255, 281, 339 (Geneva: Droz, 1991-2000); Jean-François Gilmont, ed., The Reformation and the Book, Karin Maag, trans., St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History (Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1998 [Paris: Cerf, 1990]). 16 The goal of the project is to catalogue every book printed in French before 1600. See the project website, “French Vernacular Book Project,” online at http://www.st- andrews.ac.uk/~www_rsi/book/. 17 See, e.g., Philip Benedict, Rouen during the Wars of Religion, Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981); Kevin Robbins, City on the Ocean Sea, La Rochelle, 1530-1650: Urban Society, Religion, and Politics on the French Atlantic Frontier, Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 64 (Leiden: Brill, 1997); Penny Roberts, A City in Conflict: Troyes during the French Wars of Religion (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996). 1. Introduction 7

1549 did Calvinism start to become primarily an underground French movement. 18 In this regard, the work of Heiko A. Oberman is both informative and in need of correction. His diagnosis of Calvin as having succumbed to “Arafat Syndrome,” moving away from early aggression and confrontation toward legitimation,19 is exactly backwards. Instead, Calvin started from the beginning down the path to legitimation, from his apologetic prefatory letter to King Francis I in the very first edition of the Institutes (1536) and continuing through his negotiations with Henri II’s ambassadors and his efforts to convince the Swiss to renew the French alliance. Later he moved, if not to aggressive confrontation, at least to mild resistance by supporting and planting churches illegally in France, but he made this shift only once he realized that, first, his brand of reform would never dominate in the Swiss Confederation and, second, the French king would not be pressured diplomatically into supporting or even tolerating the Reformed religion in the realm. Here, Oberman’s concept of the “Reformation of the Refugees” is helpful. Oberman describes Calvin, especially after 1550, speaking increasingly to a refugee community in Europe, forced by religious persecution to flee from their homelands. Calvin found it necessary to reconcile the plight of his new audience with a long tradition in Christian ideology, particularly aimed against the Jews, that interpreted such hardship as a sure sign of God’s wrath. In this context, Calvin’s doctrine of predestination offered hope and the promise of God’s continued faithfulness to his unchanging, eternal election.20 In this, I believe Oberman is correct, and I hope to show that a large part of the reason why Calvin’s message was increasingly aimed at the refugee communities (and particularly at French Protestants) was because his efforts to use legitimate diplomatic channels through the Swiss cantons had failed. He therefore saw that the best hope for his movement lay back in his homeland among small groups of believers rather than with German-speaking Swiss Protestant magistrates. Calvinism was, in the end, a French phenomenon. There was a strong cultural element to the conflicts in the Pays de Vaud, where German- and

18 On Marguerite’s network, see the important dissertation by Jonathan Reid, “King’s Sister – Queen of Dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549) and Her Evangelical Network” (PhD diss., University of Arizona, 2001). The Consensus Tigurinus and the French alliance will be discussed in detail below in chapter 6. 19 Oberman, “Calvin and Farel,” 53. 20 See, esp., Heiko A. Oberman, The Two : The Journey from the Last Days to the New World, ed. Donald Weinstein (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 145- 50; idem, “Europa Afflicta: The Reformation of the Refugees,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 83 (1992): 91-111. 8 Chapter 1

French-speaking Europe met. There also, the German and French Reformations collided when Guillaume Farel came from the evangelical circle at Meaux to work for the Bernese in 1528. There were fruitful partnerships as well as conflicts, but the Allemanic Bernese and their Francophone ministers and subjects would never completely see eye to eye. The trust and camaraderie that often exist only among people who speak the same language and share the same cultural heritage were not present between ruler and ruled in Vaud after 1536. The Bernese struggled to impose their will on the people, and the Calvinists fought to thrust their theology on the Bernese. Both efforts were doomed from the outset, yet in their wake came the perception of the need to compromise. Heinrich Bullinger was the linchpin holding the international Reformed community together in spite of the Calvinists, and two years after Calvin’s death, Bullinger’s successful Second Helvetic Confession, signed by Zurich, Bern, and Geneva, signalled the end of the fight between Calvinism and Zwinglianism and the dawn of a new era for Reformed Christianity.

1. EUROPE’S INTERSECTION: INTRODUCTION TO THE PAYS DE VAUD

The Pays de Vaud lay at a crucial crossroads of Europe. Linguistically, French- and German-speaking Europe met there. Geographically, it formed a significant conduit for transalpine traffic, linking Italy to northern Europe and Germany to France and Spain. Politically, it lay in a corner at the point where the major powers of Europe met: the Holy Roman Empire, the kingdom of France, the Swiss Confederation, and the dukes of Savoy and Burgundy. Hence, despite a lack of major cities, vibrant commercial life, and significant natural resources, it was a desirable region. Whoever controlled Vaud could control trade, tolls, and troop movements between Italy, central France, and upper Germany. This was especially important in the first half of the sixteenth century, when Europe’s chief political players, the emperor and the French king, were almost constantly at war, usually over Italy. Moreover, the region was proportionally much richer in human resources, arable land, and wine than most of the Swiss cantons. It should therefore come as no surprise that landlocked, mountainous Bern had its expansionist eye on Vaud throughout much of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The history of the Pays de Vaud has been profoundly affected by its chief geographical features, which also mark its approximate boundaries: the Alps to the south and east, the Jura Mountains to the west, Lake Geneva to the south, and Lake Neuchâtel to the north. These elements yield four distinct 1. Introduction 9

Figure 1-1. Lands conquered by Bern in 1536 regions in Vaud: the Jura foothills, the central plateau, the lakeshore, and the Alps foothills.21 In the Middle Ages, the Jura region was centered on the Lac de Joux and its Premonstratensian abbey. Otherwise, it was thickly forested and very sparsely populated; it has been estimated that in 1416 the population density in the lake valley was less than one person per square kilometer.22 The lakeshore and the central plateau were by far the most populous and fertile

21 Charles Biermann, “Divisions régionales du Canton de Vaud,” Geographica Helvetica 6 (1951): 182-185. I have translated Biermann’s ceinture Lémanique as “lakeshore” for the sake of clarity in English. The French is more accurately translated “Lemanic belt,” referring to lac Léman, or Lake Geneva, as it is better known in English. 22 Jean-François Bergier, Problèmes de l’histoire économique de la Suisse: Population, Vie rurale, Echanges et Trafics, Monographies d’histoire Suisse publiées par la Société générale Suisse d’histoire 2 (Bern: Franke Editions, 1968), 15. 10 Chapter 1 regions in the late Middle Ages, as they are today, although a higher percentage of the population at that time lived inland where the most fertile cropland lay. The land along the lakeshore is better suited for viticulture than agriculture, and its medieval inhabitants recognized this as well. Indeed, Vaud’s wine was the region’s only major export in the Middle Ages. The Alps region lies southeast of Lake Geneva and included the so- called Four Mandated Territories of Bern (or Quatre Mandements – Aigle, Ormont, Bex, and Ollon). The region had good pastures and was well suited for animal husbandry. Among these four regions, the importance of the Vaudois plateau deserves emphasis. On the one hand, it was a major segment of the Swiss breadbasket that yielded a substantial portion of the crops necessary for feeding the city, mountain, and forest dwellers in the Swiss Confederation. Largely because of the relatively fertile plateau and coast, Vaud’s population at the beginning of the fifteenth century was approximately 55,000-60,000 – almost double that of the cantons of Fribourg, Bern, and Zurich.23 Moreover, late medieval Vaud could be characterized as a semi-urban society. The region boasted thirty to forty villes,24 but most were quite small, housing fewer than 1,000 people. Lausanne was the largest city in the region with a population of around 5,000, approximately the same as the cities of Bern, Fribourg, and Zurich. In the Swiss region beyond the Pays de Vaud, Basel was by far the largest city, holding more than 10,000 people in the fifteenth century. By contrast, around 1500 Lyon and the major south German cities of Augsburg and Nuremburg had populations of approximately 40,000, Paris and Milan about 100,000.25 Swiss cities paled in comparison, and the tiny Vaudois towns would probably have appeared no more than rural hitching posts to a Fugger or Medici passing through. The meager agricultural resources of the Swiss region made the cantons unable to sustain larger urban populations.26 Even in the Pays de Vaud, despite the area’s large number of towns, population density was very low by European standards,

23 Bergier, Problèmes de l’histoire économique de la Suisse, 15. Bergier estimates the populations of the cantons of Bern and Fribourg at around 30,000, and of Zurich at around 27,000-29,000. 24 Jean-François Bergier defines the medieval ville as having three essential characteristics: 1) it was enclosed by a city wall, 2) it possessed legal privileges that distinguished it from rural populations, and 3) even if the majority of its inhabitants had rural occupations, city life centered on artisanal and commercial activity. Bergier, Problèmes de l’histoire économique de la Suisse, 24. 25 Jean-François Bergier, Histoire économique de la Suisse (Lausanne: Payot, 1984), 39-40. Geneva’s population also passed ten thousand in the fifteenth century but was not yet part of the Confederation. 26 Bergier, Problèmes de l’histoire économique de la Suisse, 9-10. 1. Introduction 11 with only about twenty inhabitants per square kilometer. This ratio was slightly higher than the average throughout the Swiss region (17/km2), but less than half that of Italy (about 44/km2) and significantly lower than France (34/km2).27 The agricultural nature of Vaud is most apparent when one considers that even in the largest towns the majority of medieval and early modern residents were farmers. Lausanne itself, the episcopal seat and intellectual center of the region, has been characterized as a “country town” (ville campagnarde), a “large agricultural burg where one should not look for extended commerce, or industry, or any refined good.”28 There was no milking industry, for example, until at least the 18th century; even the bishop had to keep milking animals in the city for his personal use.29 The city was surrounded by vineyards and crop fields that were worked by the city residents. Many citizens also fished for Lake Geneva’s famous perch.30 There were, of course, merchants and artisans in Lausanne but only enough to satisfy the basic commercial needs of the city. Neither the city nor the region had any significant industry, and no organized guild structure evolved in Lausanne as it did in Bern, Fribourg, and the other major Swiss cities; instead, commerce was regulated by the bishop and city council.31 Lausanne’s political situation was unique in Vaud, however, and guilds did, in fact, develop elsewhere in the region; powerful organizations of boatmen were organized in and Yverdon, for example, reflecting the importance of those ports in particular and of the Vaudois water routes in general in the late Middle Ages.32 Morges and Yverdon were particularly important since the overland road between them linked two of Europe’s most important commercial waterways, the Rhine and the Rhône rivers. Morges was the principal port on Lake Geneva, which empties into the Rhône River running south to the Mediterranean, and Yverdon sits at the south end of Lake Neuchâtel, which feeds the Aare River; the Aare in turn joins the Rhine along the Swiss- German border. The potential for linking the two waterways to provide one

27 Bergier, Problèmes de l’histoire économique de la Suisse, 15-17. 28 “Durant la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle, au XVIIe et plus tard encore, notre vieille cité, bien qu’enserrée de murailles crénelées et fermée de portes, n’est à bien des égards, malgré ces airs de fortresse, qu’un gros bourg agricole où il ne faut chercher ni commerce un peu étendu, ni industrie, ni rien de bien raffiné.” B. Dumur, “Lausanne ville campagnarde,” RHV 11 (1903): 97-115, 129-42; here, 98. 29 Dumur, “Lausanne ville campagnarde,” 99. 30 Danielle Anex-Cabanis, La vie économique à Lausanne au Moyen Âge, BHV 62 (Lausanne: Bibliothèque historique vaudoise, 1978), 53. 31 Anex-Cabanis, La vie économique à Lausanne au Moyen Âge, 43. 32 Bergier, Problèmes de l’histoire économique de la Suisse, 82. 12 Chapter 1 continuous water route from the Mediterranean to the North Sea was not lost on either the Roman or the Bernese conquerors, both of whom dreamed of building a canal through Vaud to do just that, although no one ever actually accomplished it.33 In addition to serving as a prime connecting point of these two water routes, the Pays de Vaud benefitted from a traffic bottleneck created by the two great mountain chains, the Alps and the Jura. Four main axes of communication cut across Vaud in the Middle Ages.34 In the early medieval period, transalpine traffic was not the most important concern. Instead, the Burgundian and Carolinigian rulers needed to link the two sides of their kingdoms over the Jura mountains; indeed, Vaud was known in the sixth and seventh centuries as the pagus ultrajoranus.35 The route used the pass at Jougne (today in France, dép. Haut-Doubs), and Italian merchants later used this route to access the Champagne fairs. From Jougne, the road into Vaud passed through Les Clées and then either northeast to Yverdon and Lake Neuchâtel or south to the shore of Lake Geneva. The second major route simply followed the north coast of Lake Geneva, passing from Geneva in the west through Lausanne to the strategically placed Château de Chillon at the extreme eastern end of the lake. Perched on a rock jutting out into Lake Geneva and just a stone’s throw away from the steep slopes of the Alps that seem to shoot straight up out of the lake itself, Chillon easily controlled the vast majority of traffic moving between the Simplon and Grand Saint Bernard alpine passes to northern Europe. The only way to avoid passing within a hundred meters of the château was to branch off the road earlier and follow the more difficult and less popular southern coast of the lake. The

33 See Paul-Louis Pelet, Le canal d’entreroches: Histoire d’une idée, Thèse de doctorat, Faculté des lettres, Université de Lausanne (Lausanne: F. Rouge & Cie, 1946); cf. Bergier, Problèmes de l’histoire économique de la Suisse, 82. 34 See figure 2. On medieval roads through Vaud, see Jean-François Bergier, “Pays de Vaud et trafic international du XIIIe au XVIIIe siècle,” RHV 63 (1955): 198-202; Jean-Pierre Dewarrat and Laurence Margairaz, “Le pays de Vaud bernois: lieu de passages,” in De l’Ours à la Cocarde: Régime bernois et revolution en pays de Vaud (1536-1798), ed. François Flouck, et al. (Lausanne: Payot, 1998), 45-57; V. Chomel and J. Ebersolt, Cinq siècles de circulation internationale vue de Jougne, Ecole pratique des hautes-études – VIe section: Centre de recherches historiques, ports, routes et trafics 2 (Paris: Armand Colin, 1951), see especially the excellent route maps at the end of the book; and Martin Körner, “Les péages vaudois dans les comptes du Trésorier romand à Berne au XVIe siècle,” in La monnaie de sa pièce…: Hommages à Colin Martin, ed. Paul-Louis Pelet and Jean-François Poudret, BHV 105 (Lausanne: Bibliothèque historique vaudoise, 1992), 235-250. 35 Richard Paquier, Le Pays de Vaud des origines à la conquête bernoise, 2 vols. (Lausanne: F. Rouge & Cie, 1943), 1:63. The designation “Pays de Vaud” originates from the eighth- century Latin designation Pagus Waldensis (ibid., 1:68). 1. Introduction 13 third and fourth main international routes linked Geneva and points west to southern Germany. The first of these followed the arc of the Jura through Neuchâtel to Basel, while the other major road to Germany passed east of Lake Neuchâtel through Fribourg, Bern, and Zurich to Constance. Although the Gotthard pass east of Simplon drew most of the transalpine traffic moving between Italy and southeastern Germany away from Vaud, German merchants heading to the fairs of Geneva or Lyon, or towards the French Midi or Spain would still have needed to take one of these roads through Vaud. The tolls from these roads provided a significant source of income. Under Bernese rule in the sixteenth century, there were eleven major tolls in

Figure 1-2. International trade routes through Vaud 14 Chapter 1

Vaud.36 In a study of six of these, Martin Körner has calculated that from 1553 to 1555, for example, Bern took in 2,184 pounds, or about 5,500 florins, enough to pay thirty to forty pastors’ annual salaries.37 If I may be so bold as to venture a calculated guess at a modern equivalent based on an average clergyman’s salary today of about $35,000, these tolls (which represented just over half the total number) would have brought in the equivalent of approximately $1-1.5 million, hardly a sum to sneeze at. The Pays de Vaud’s geographical position as a strategic crossroads for a large percentage of transalpine traffic gave the region its principal importance. Control of Vaud would yield significant income from the many tolls in the region and, just as importantly, would allow oversight of troop movements, especially of imperial soldiers and mercenaries from Italy and Spain that were seen as a threat to the independence of the Swiss Confederation. Second, with a population almost double that of canton Bern, Vaud was rich in human resources that could be used to swell the ranks of the famous Bernese army, fill the treasury, and work the land. Third, although lacking in highly profitable natural resources, Vaud’s many farms and vineyards would provide a substantial source of staple goods for Bern.

36 They were at Yverdon, Sainte-Croix, Vallorbe/Les Clées, , Crissier/, Vouvry (near Aigle), , Morges, Chillon, Villeneuve, and Vevey. Körner notes that the tolls at Moudon, Morges, Chillon, and Villeneuve are not found in the treasurer’s accounts. Körner, “Les péages vaudois,” 236. 37 Körner, “Les péages vaudois,” 240. Conversions are my own, based on 1 lb. = 2.5 florins. For a useful list of old money and measurement conversions, see the appendices in Georges Rapp, La Seigneurie de Prangins du XIIIme siècle à la chute de l’ancien régime: Etude d’histoire économique et sociale, Thèse de Doctorat, Faculté des Lettres, Université de Lausanne (Lausanne: Librarie de Droit, F. Roth & Cie, 1942). I am basing the pastor’s salary equivalent of approximately 150 florins on a variety of sources I have seen indicating that pastors’ salaries in sixteenth-century Vaud ranged between about 50 florins per year for pastors in small parishes to 300 florins or more for those in the larger cities. 1. Introduction 15

Finally, one must also consider that if Bern had any expansionist dreams whatsoever, the Pays de Vaud was the only path toward realizing them. Otherwise surrounded by Confederation allies, Bern’s only legitimate avenue outward was through Savoyard Vaud. The Reformation would be forever shaped by the republic’s march down that road. Chapter 2 POLITICS AND DIPLOMACY IN VAUD The Pays de Vaud in International Context, ca. 1450-1564

The Pays de Vaud in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was a political plum ripe for the picking. Its geographical location and resources, together with the weakness of its overlord, the duke of Savoy, led neighboring expansionist powers to fight for dominance in the region. Understanding the perpetual tug-of-war over the territory is vital for explaining the course of the Reformation in Vaud and the mentality that informed the response of the Vaudois people. Scholars have given scant attention, however, to the impact of political and diplomatic history on the Reformation in Vaud. There has been some acknowledgment that the Bernese conquest played a role, but this has inspired little close examination. Imperial fortunes in Germany, diplomatic negotiations between France and the Swiss Confederation, the rise of a new duke of Savoy, Emmanuel-Philibert, and the tenuous alliance between Bern and Geneva created an international political backdrop that would shape the priorities, strategies, and fortunes of the reformers and affect the response to their efforts. Variations in the relative strength of these forces left the people of Vaud in a constant state of uncertainty. Between 1536 and 1564, the possibility remained strong that the region would revert to imperial or Savoyard rule and, hence, to Catholicism as well. This chapter presents, first, a description of the political structures in place in late medieval Vaud and, second, a brief history of the political events and diplomatic relations that most significantly affected the region from the late fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth century. Some of this history may be familiar to Reformation historians, but much has remained unexplored, especially in the period after 1536. Standard histories of the Swiss Confederation have addressed in sufficient detail the political situation in the period up to the Kappel Wars, but the thread of political events frays in the 1530s when discussions of the impact of the Reformation on individual 18 Chapter 2 cantons replace the continued examination of the common history of the Confederation.1 Restoring the awareness of the political and diplomatic history in this period will help us to contextualize more effectively the specific course of the Reformation in Vaud.

1. LATE MEDIEVAL POLITICAL STRUCTURES IN VAUD

From a geographical and economic perspective, the Pays de Vaud in the Middle Ages was always a byway and rarely a destination. Its political position mirrored this economic reality: it was always the conquered but never the conqueror, a pawn to be fought over by the political powers around it but never a political power itself. In the Merovingian period, Vaud was a part of the Frankish kingdom of Burgundy.2 In the eighth century, it became part of the Carolingian empire and was assigned to the central kingdom of Lotharingia in the Treaty of Verdun (832). The Rudolphian kings of Burgundy ruled the territory from 888 to 1032, at which time it came under the authority of the Holy Roman Empire. A few of the early emperors took an active interest in Vaud; Conrad II, for example, was crowned in the abbey of in 1033. During most of the high Middle Ages, however, the emperors’ attentions were turned chiefly toward the crusades and conflicts with the papacy and rebellious Italian communes. The affairs of Vaud were left largely in the hands of the bishop of Lausanne and other minor lords. At the beginning of the thirteenth century, however, Pierre (1203-1268), count of Savoy, was able to bring most of the Vaudois seigneuries under his authority. Although his immediate successors carved up the inheritance, the region was brought fully under the control of the count of Savoy again during the reign of Amédée VI, le comte vert. In July 1359 Amédée received homage from the nobles and castellans of Vaud, thereby establishing his control over the entire region, excepting only the lands belonging to the bishop of Lausanne. In the fifteenth century, the Burgundian Wars and the expansionist policies of Bern brought the Swiss Confederation into the picture. On the eve of the Reformation, therefore, control over most of the

1 See, e.g., E. Bonjour, H. S. Offler, and G. R. Potter, A Short History of Switzerland (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952); Louis Vulliemin, Histoire de la Conféderation Suisse, 2 vols. (Lausanne: Georges Bridel, 1879). 2 The best study of the medieval history of Vaud is Paquier, Le Pays de Vaud des origines à la conquête bernoise. See also a good summary by Lucienne Hubler, Histoire du Pays de Vaud (Lausanne: Loisirs et pédagogie, 1991), also available online at http://www.memo.fr/.